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Letters to the Editor
May 9, 2012 A7
Questions need to be answered The Editor: At this time last year we had already been through flood one and were about to go into flood two here in Roche Percee. We had a resident who lived on the wrong side of the dike and moved out on April 13 and she only got to go back to her home a couple of days before the “big one, flood four” on June 19 hit, which destroyed her home along with most of the other village homes. But this flood did more than affect those of us in Roche Percee, it affected everyone in the southeast. If you lived south of the valley and needed to go to a doctor
or drugstore you had to use Highway 39 (when it was open), otherwise you had to drive across Rafferty Dam (when it was open). When these routes were closed, you would have had to go over to Regway up Highway 6 and then back. So if you lived south of Oxbow you could see the town but would have had to drive 200 miles to get there, or go by boat, if you had one. The bridges on Highways 47, 39, and 9 crossing the Souris River are designed for a flow of 197 cubic meters per second. We had flows of about 770 m3/s. The water that backed up at Highway 39 was at least three feet
higher on the upstream side of the highway. Now I’ve been told that the river drops, on average, about one foot per mile so that makes the water at Roche Percee at least one and a half feet deeper. So some of the damage could have been prevented had the highways been to at least a 600 m3/s standard. Now everyone else is supposed to build to a one in 500 standard, everyone but the Department of Highways that is, and the meetings that I’ve been at, they (Department of Highways) say that they have no plans to take it to that standard. I guess trade and people don’t
count, rules and suggestions are just for Joe Public. At one of the conferences that I attended, it was stated that the standard that the dams were operated for was for a one in a 100-year event and Sask. Watershed Authority was held to that standard. Muncipal Affairs has stated that they think that 2011 was a one in 3000-year event. How much worse did these rules make this situation? Why wasn’t the standard set at the one in 500-year event level plus a safety margin of 10 per cent? In the RMs we had a river flowing from Grif-
fin through Benson to the Souris River south of Frobisher, or over to Lampman and then to Alameda Dam and then down the Souris River. The question has been brought up as to how much of this water was caused by drainage? How much of the water coming down the Souris could have been prevented if there was no drainage? During the flooding, some farmers saw this as a chance to drain when everyone had flooding on their mind and would blame everything on the rain and flooding not where the true cause was. All of this has a snowball effect that affects everyone
downstream and only ends at the Atlantic Ocean, if it ends there. We don’t know what pollutants the water carries. We don’t have a wetlands inventory map to see what happened here during this past year, and SWA doesn’t have the manpower to check the whole situation out to come up with an answer. At this time I wonder why has no public inquiry been done to see if there is an answer to any of the questions mentioned above, or doesn’t anyone care? Reg Jahn, Mayor of Roche Percee
Stand up and be counted Concerns will be addressed
The Editor: I was reading the Leader-Post on April 13, 2012 about how SAHO came to the bargaining table with SGEU Cancer Agency Nurses and gave them a final offer of a 5.5 per cent increase over 39 months. Then I was listening to the news on the same day saying the premier and MLAs got a 2.8 per cent raise due to cost-of-living. Something does not make sense in my mind. SGEU Cancer Agency Nurses get offered 5.5 per cent minus the 2.8 per cent the Saskatchewan legislative assembly cost-of-living raise equals 2.7 per cent for SGEU Cancer Agency Nurses Raise over 39 months. That is how I see this equation equalling. I, myself think if the Members of the Legislative Assembly get a cost-of-living raise all residents of Saskatchewan should get it. Well, I wrote an e-mail to Premier Wall. It took three e-mails and I got an e-mail back from Premier The Estevan Mercury welcomes letters from its readership. All letters must be SIGNED to be eligible for publication and include your full name and a phone number where you can be reached during the day. All material is subject to editing. We also ask that hand written letters be legible. Send your letters to:
Box 730, Estevan SK S4A 2A6 68 Souris Ave. N., Estevan, SK e-mail: editor@estevanmercury.ca
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Brad Wall. He explained the Members of Saskatchewan legislative assembly received an automatic, inflation-adjusted pay raise of 2.8 per cent this year. The increase is remuneration for base salaries and extra duties is based on a cost-of-living formula tied to inflation. Do we all not feel this inflation? Premier Brad Wall was in Estevan this month telling us how Saskatchewan is prospering. I will tell a short story. Our little school in Bienfait used to have Toast on Tuesdays. Now we have breakfast everyday as some children would not have any if they did not receive some at school. Prospering is the key word as rent is around $2,000 for a three bedroom house. Gasoline to drive to work is $1.26 per litre, a can of coffee is $18 or $19, power bills keep increasing, SaskTel keeps going up, the price of bread has almost
tripled in the last year, hamburger last year was on sale for $1.50 per pound now it’s on sale for $2.99 per pound. I could type all night so I will stop there; you get the point. The point is if your legislative assembly needs a raise, so does each resident of Saskatchewan. I am a member of CUPE 5999. Remember Premier Brad Wall and SAHO, we are also out of a contract, and Premier Wall you wrote in my letter, how are you going to cover this one up? Well, people of Saskatchewan how do you like what you voted in this time? They did not get my vote and will never get it back. By the way Premier Brad Wall, do not spend your $4,500 raise this year all in one place. Thank you everyone who reads this letter, it’s your turn to stand up and be counted. Sandy Hedstrom Bienfait, Sask.
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The Editor: Recently, there have been concerns voiced about the proposed new Tim Hortons on the northeast corner of the Estevan Shoppers Mall lot. The management of Estevan Shoppers Mall would like to address these concerns, and inform the public of the measures taken to make the project a success. Undertaking a project that impacts the community in as many ways as this one
does presents challenges and there are a lot of things to consider. When we learned that Tim Hortons was looking to expand into the King Street area, we saw an opportunity to meet their need while benefiting our customers. We have worked closely with the City and with Tim Hortons to meet requirements and address concerns such as traffic and congestion. We are confident that the public will be happy with the solutions we have settled on,
and see solutions to some current problems, such as bridging the gap between our lot and that of Canadian Tire with a paved roadway, and relieving congestion at the Fourth Street location. We look forward to further serving our shoppers by welcoming Tim Hortons to the mall. Theresa Charne, Vice President of Leasing, Estevan Shoppers Mall
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